Marvel Comics Group, New York City, NY
March 12, 1980
Stan Lee steepled his fingers. "Jim, what should we do about the Disney Channel deal?"
Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter snorted as he awoke from a nap. "The... what? You mean the animated shows?"
"Yes. DePatie-Freleng--well, Marvel Productions in a few months--is already working on a Spider-Man show that can be up and running as soon as next year. They want me to write for them, too. But what do we
do about the animated Marvel universe we're creating? Where do we go from Spider-Man?"
"I'd say the Incredible Hulk, obviously," offered Shooter.
"I suppose so. It's too bad those deals with Universal over the live-action Hulk show fell through. I guess that bastard Michael Eisner doesn't know a good idea even when it's an inch in front of him."
"On the bright side, he gave us back the full rights to the Human Torch in the chaos after Sid Sheinberg bit the dust. Eisner must really hate superheroes."
"I think he does," replied Stan. "I've had the displeasure of meeting the guy, he flat out turned me down on everything I had to offer before all my papers were out of the briefcase. When I was leaving, he muttered something about comic books being for 'children'. Apparently, Universal's too cool to fool with 'children' these days."
"...So the Incredible Hulk is next. We've got the rights to the FF, they're still decently popular. The X-Men are outselling every single comic on the stand these days. And of course, we've got the Avengers, Cap, Iron Man, Thor... who of those would fit television, you think?"
Stan Lee's face lit up. "All of them."
Shooter's face fell. "What?"
Stan grabbed a pen and flipped over the paper before him, exposing a blank side. He quickly began scribbling down words and drawings on the page. "So, you know how in our comics the characters always... cross over between the other titles? Cross pollination. Something to entice readers of, say, Daredevil to hop on over and see what Spider-Man's up to that month. What if we tried to do that with these animated TV series?"
He'd written down a very confusing diagram under the title 'The Marvel Animated Universe'. Arrows pointed in every direction, connecting Spider-Man to the Fantastic Four to the X-Men to the Hulk to the Avengers...
"That's insane. There's no
way we can pull off a project this big," protested Shooter.
"
We can't, but
Disney can. Get Walt on the horn. I've got a hell of an idea to share with him."
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Elstree Studios, London, UK
March 17, 1980
George Lucas let out a groan of disbelief and anger, as he took a seat on the curb. "How bad was it?"
"Pretty bad," said Irvin Kershner, the film's director. "Apparently, the fire was started by a short-circuiting coffee machine. It destroyed about half of Dagobah, and one of the Yoda puppets looks like Belloq at the end of
Raiders, but everyone got out okay."
Lucas put his head in his hands. "Great. That's gonna kill the budget."
Kershner nodded. "Stanley Kubrick wasn't too happy either. The fire made it to
The Shining's set, and did some damage there, too. But that's not our problem."
"Goddammit. This movie had better do fucking phenomenal.
Trench Run did well, but not like
Black Hole. I sure hope people aren't getting tired of Star Wars mania..."
--------------------------------
Site of EuroDisney, Aprilia, Latina, Italy
March 22, 1980
Tony Baxter shifted his stance and ticked off another box, standing before a crowd of Imagineers. "Jungle Cruise?"
"Finished the final details last night."
"Seabase Nautilus?"
"She's still being worked on. All the details in the lagoon are taking a lot of time to install."
"Grizzly Gulch Railroad?"
"Track's in place, but not all the details, and the T. Rex is still being embedded in the wall."
"Alright. That's all I've got for now. We're coming up on crunch time, people. We've got just under two months before EuroDisney opens, and we've got about three month's of work left. So, double-time! No,
triple-time, ladies and gentlemen! We don't want another Disneyland Opening Day disaster on our hands, do we?"
"
No!" roared the group.
"So hop to it! Tinker Bell can't build this
whole place by herself!"
The Imagineers dispersed from where they had assembled at the Roman Forum, this park's version of a Main Street, USA. Snow White Castle, a decidedly fantastical take on the classic 'weenies' of the Disney Parks, loomed in the distance. Tony Baxter swiveled in the direction of the open-air market, which declared it was selling 'Exotic Gifts from the Empire's Furthest Reaches' in Latin, and kept his nose on his clipboard as he walked. He was paying such little attention that he ploughed right into Walt Disney.
"Oh, man, I'm really sorry, Walt!" apologized Tony, crouching to pick up his fallen papers.
Walt just laughed. "No worries. I've done my fair share of running into things myself."
Tony stood. "Well, that's a relief. So, you finally made it back out to Italy, I see?"
Walt shushed him. "Keep it down. I'm supposed to be at a shareholders meeting in New York right now."
"Does Roy know you're here?"
"Would I be here if he didn't? My brother knows all. When we were little, he made me give him half an extra biscuit I swiped at dinner one night, otherwise he'd tell Dad. And getting in trouble with Elias Disney was no laughing matter."
"Do you want a tour of the place? Maybe a ride on something that's finished?"
"What do you have?"
Tony scanned his paper. "Let's see... Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Phantom Manor, Peter Pan... the Timekeeper animatronic show works, but it might be a little creepy without any other audience members..."
"How about... Around the World in Eighty Days?" proposed Walt. "That's EuroDisney's small world analogue, correct?"
"It is. Shall we go backstage, or walk the beaten path there?"
"The beaten path. That way I can point out any problems I see along the way," Walt explained.
The duo set off, and along the way, Walt did indeed point out many problems--127 to be precise--that ranged from distances between trash cans ("No more than twenty paces, remember--people are lazy and won't walk farther than that to throw away garbage,") to still seeing the castle in Discoveryland to a few dead light bulbs. Every time Walt and Tony stopped, the younger Imagineer realized how important Walt was to the building of a Disney theme park. He shuddered, thinking of a world where Walt Disney was gone, and
he, Tony Baxter, had to make all the tough-but-tiny decisions. Hopefully, that world was still a long way's off.
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(A big thanks to
@Pyro for suggesting ideas/helping with anything and everything comic book related ITTL, including the MAU!)